PDD Quiz: Northland Statues
Put your art smarts to the test with this quiz on area statues.
The next PDD quiz, reviewing this month’s headlines, will be published on Nov. 24. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by Nov. 20. (more…)
Western Waterfront Trail will share corridor with excursion train
Duluth's renamed Western Waterfront Trail to grow, share corridor with excursion train - Duluth News Tribune | News, weather, and sports from Duluth, Minnesota
New name, 'Waabizheshikana,' honors indigenous heritage
duluthnewstribune.com
The Duluth News Tribune reports a plan has emerged to extend Duluth’s Western Waterfront Trail via a rail corridor, while maintaining a scenic train service that would continue to use the same route. The proposed future name of the trail is “Waabizheshikana” — pronounced: waa-bah-zhay-kuh-nuh — meaning “Marten way, path or road.” (more…)
Freediving the Edmund Fitzgerald
It would be possible to dive to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald on the strength of a single breath. Even at the wreck’s depth of 530 feet, it might actually be safer to dive unsupported by scuba tanks than to scuba dive to it. This essay is intended to hypothetically explore the intersection of different types of diving, the wreck itself, and the lake in general. At a minimum, I am suggesting that the freediving possibilities of Lake Superior have not been fully explored.
My interest is provoked because I utilize some freediving breath-hold techniques in my underwater videography as Lake Superior Aquaman. I have never scuba dived, and so I think of the lake in freediving terms. I do not intend to offend the families of the deceased by invoking the Fitzgerald tragedy. However, its iconic stature as a deep wreck in Lake Superior makes it ideal for these illustrative purposes.
I am not suggesting any actual dives to the Fitzgerald. For one thing, both freediving and scuba diving present significant risks, especially beyond 100 feet deep. Also, it has been illegal to dive to the wreck since 2006, unless approved by the Canadian government in whose waters it lies. This is because of successful lobbying by the victims’ families to keep the wreck sacrosanct. (more…)
They take blue balls pretty seriously in Rice Lake, Wis.
From the Rice Lake Chronotype of Rice Lake, Wis., about 100 miles south of Duluth. Via @hometownpolicelog on Instagram.
The Richardson Brothers Podcast: Charlotte Montgomery interviewed by Jim Richardson
The Richardson Brothers: Charlotte Montgomery Interviewed by Jim Richardson
richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com
The first of a projected series of Duluth music scene interviews. Jim Richardson interviews the multi-talented Charlotte Montgomery: solo singer-songwriter, member of the band Red Mountain, and dancer in the Duluth Dolls. This interview features a performance of one of Charlotte’s original songs – “West” – and it is a barn-burner. Charlotte is leaving town after eight years; her farewell performance was at Blacklist Brewing, Saturday Nov. 9 at 8 p.m.
Cloquet’s Northeast Bar & Grill calls it quits
The Northeast Bar & Grill, also known as NE BBQ & Smokehouse, formally announced its closure on Facebook today. The last day of business was Oct. 12.
“We so loved our patrons and are so very sad to end the business that we loved so well,” part of the message read. “Unfortunately, we are receiving more inquiries now than we ever did while in business. That said: If you love a place, support it and patronize often. We have several surviving businesses in town that need that type of support.” (more…)
Dave Mehling – “Big Time Sadness”
Duluth native Dave Mehling has a new album on the way — Beach Boy. Here’s the video by Ben Abrahamson for the first single.
Emily Haavik & the 35s – “Take Me to the City”
Duluth native turned (Twin) city girl Emily Haavik has a new video, produced by AMPonStage, featuring a new song recorded at Underwood Recording studios in Minneapolis. The video also features another Duluth native, Dave Mehling, on guitar.
Haavik is opening for Matthew Mayfield at First Avenue’s 7th St Entry on Dec. 10.
A Video Tour Inside Old Central’s Clock Tower
This video offers another horological nerdout session inside the Historic Old Central High School clock tower, this time brought to you by videographer Paul Scinocca.
“Not many of us get to see what makes this clock tower tick,” Scinocca writes on the YouTube description. “Sorry, had to say it. I was actually on site for a work project, lucky for me the tower is in part of the project.”
Selective Focus: Amnicon Falls State Park
Instagram
227 likes, 6 comments - zachrohweder on October 28, 2019: "The leaves are off the trees but at least there’s still some left on the ground. 🍂".
instagram.com
For this edition of “Selective Focus,” we share images from Instagram of Amnicon Falls State Park, located about 20 miles southeast of Downtown Duluth. (more…)
Views from Duluth’s Point of Rocks circa 1898
The six photos in this post are all from Detroit Publishing Company, and appear to have been shot on the same date — unless someone with a keen eye can call out evidence to the contrary. They are generally labeled as scenes from “the Bluffs,” which is an area of Duluth that later became known as the Point of Rocks. These photos appear to have been shot in a part of Point of Rocks that is known as Central Park, at the eastern-most part of the Lincoln Park neighborhood. (more…)
Monthly Grovel: November 2019 Edition
In the past year — from November 2018 through October 2019 — the PDD Calendar published 7,960 Duluth-area events. Each one was edited by a human being before the “publish” button was pushed.
It’s a tremendous amount of work to keep up with all the submissions from the more than 1,000 organizations that have sent us info about their concerts, plays, bunco tournaments and lutefisk dinners. That’s why once a month we set our dignity aside and remind readers how much we appreciate their financial support. (more…)
Trampled by Turtles – “Fake Plastic Trees”
Trampled by Turtles tackle a Radiohead cover.
From Sigourney Fever, a Trampled by Turtles EP of covers, available Dec. 6.
Track list:
1. “Pocahontas” (Neil Young)
2. “Ooh La La” (Faces)
3. “Our Town” (Iris DeMent)
4. “Keep Me in Your Heart” (Warren Zevon)
5. “Fake Plastic Trees” (Radiohead)
LibraryCon at LSC
I was all-out nerd at Lake Superior College today, where the Erickson Library hosted LibraryCon. (more…)
The Slice: Grand Portage Trail
Karl Koster, park ranger at Grand Portage National Monument, explains how the Grand Portage Trail connected people and commerce during the fur trading era.
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
Duluth 2019 General Election Results
Emily Larson will serve a second term as Duluth Mayor. There will be three new city councilors: Derek Medved, Roz Randorf and Janet Kennedy. Paul Sandholm is new to the school board.
Duluth Mayor
Emily Larson – 13,340 | 63.65%
David Nolle – 7,509 | 35.83%
Write in – 110 | 0.52% (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #27: Gas and Water Edition
Another trivia card from a board game purchased at Savers. (more…)
Darling Drive – “At a Loss”
Darling Drive, the solo acoustic music project of Enrique Aguilar, released the song “At a Loss” on the 2014 album Shipwrecked. The song mentions Duluth, and depending on how one interprets it there might also be a reference to the city of Superior or Lake Superior. (more…)
Wild, a spoken-word musical tribute to weasels, inspired by an encounter in Chester Park
A celebration of the weasel family (mustelids) inspired by an encounter I had with a least weasel in the deep woods portions of Chester Park Ravine, which led to a re-reading of Annie Dillard’s essay, “Living Like Weasels.” (more…)
The Richardson Brothers Podcast: New Episode
This week: “SuperDuluth, the Living City,” a hallucinatory vision of the city awakening in a dream of light and water.
The Richardson Brothers: SuperDuluth, the Living City
richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com
Breaking the Law
All names in this story have been changed. You know, just in case.
In my hometown of Petersburg, Alaska, there is one road that stretches from one end of town to the other, traversing but not circumnavigating the island on which my hometown is located. I think generally people tend to think of islands as little round circles of land in the ocean, which one might conceivably drive around and around forever, like a brass ball in a roulette wheel. But that’s not how things are, and islands are often shaped inconveniently, or pockmarked with gigantic mountains or bodies of water or even volcanoes, which can make logical traffic accommodations wacky. Anyway. In Petersburg, the road goes from one end of the long, arrow-shaped island to the other. This straight-line trajectory has even led locals to refer to driving toward the rural end of the island as “going out the road.” Interestingly, the city limits do not extend to the end of the road, but rather, end some several miles earlier. This means that the city police cannot legally enforce the law beyond those city limits, creating a kind of rogue, lawless wilderness on one end of the island.
This is, as you can likely imagine, terrific news for teenagers. (more…)
R.I.P. Merritt Park Recreation Center Building
This week the field house at Merritt Park joined the growing list of historic West Duluth buildings demolished in recent years. The 2,016-square foot building was constructed in 1939. (more…)
Selective Focus: Lance T. Karasti
Lance Karasti has been making independent films for several years, experimenting with techniques for shooting, writing and different ways of approaching the entire filmmaking process. He’s an active enthusiast in the arts in town, and he’s preparing for another variation in style and process for his current project. This week he tells us about his films, and his fundraising campaign.
LTK: I am an independent feature filmmaker. I am currently developing a style of filmmaking called “hypernaturalism.”
I started developing this style halfway through shooting my 2016 project Artificial. Artificial was being shot with a traditional process but I found myself rewriting the scenes every morning before shooting. By the halfway point I just told the actors to stop worrying about the scripts and be prepared to come up with stuff on the spot. While a part of this was due to realizing a lot of my written dialogue was amateur, it was mostly because it had become necessary for the authenticity of the narrative. As written, the film was about stuff I didn’t know and hadn’t experienced. The process of shooting it was like adapting it into something honest and reflective. Rewriting the scenes everyday had caused me to change the course of the film so much that completely improvising was the only way to adapt to the thematic shifts. (more…)
Video Archive: WDIO-TV Halloween Weather Report
From the haunted film vault comes this 1970s clip featuring WDIO-TV weatherman Jack McKenna, two mice and Dracula. Also featured at the end are anchorman Dennis Anderson and sportscaster Bill Stefl.
Happy Halloween!
Zombie self defense at UMD
What better place to find big juicy brains to feast on than an institute of higher learning. UMD Chief Information Officer, Jason Davis, explains how to defend against a zombie attack using principles of Jujutsu.